Tale of woe | Penn Station letdown| No 'bank' you | Schumer's strategy

If Kathleen Arntsen's travails with so-called step therapy don't persuade Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign a bill reforming it, it's hard to imagine what would. With nothing to lose except perhaps her sight in one eye, the patient advocate describes her saga in an op-ed.

Tough times for transit advocates

The governor's plans for Penn Station, slow progress on a proposed Hudson River tunnel, a muted reaction to the idea of extending the 1 train, and other issues have transportation advocates in a dark mood. Read more here.

No bank you very much

New York regulators and elected officials have for years tried to get more low-income residents to use banks rather than check-cashing establishments. But there are reasons these efforts have largely failed.

One is that the New York metro area's average overdraft fee is $34.63, the fourth highest in the nation, while the out-of-network ATM fee of $4.86 is the sixth highest, according to a new Bankrate.com report.

Those figures sound high, but are not much above the national averages of $33.04 and $4.57, respectively. Low-cost bank accounts such as the state-mandated "lifeline banking" exist, but banks rarely advertise them and many government regulators have forgotten them, too.

Schumer takes advantage

Sen. Charles Schumer is taking advantage of his 46-point lead over Republican challenger Wendy Long by donating millions of dollars from his campaign fund to Democratic candidates who could be the difference between him becoming minority leader or majority leader when Sen. Harry Reid retires. Greg David has more here.